I
must admit at the outset that this is not my favorite Stephen Stills
album – that designation goes to his first solo release, Stephen
Stills. I seem to remember that this was his first album on Columbia,
back in 1975, and perhaps if I had never heard him before, I would have
found the Stills album more significant than I do.

My main problem with the album is the arrangements, which I find rather
lackluster and middle of the road. The songs themselves are often quite
good – for example, "Turn Back the Pages," "My Favorite Changes," and
Neil Young’s "New Mama" – but the way they are presented seems to dull
their edges.

The one exception is the Crosby, Stills and Nash track "As I Come of
Age," written by Stills and featuring Crosby, Stills and Nash on
vocals, which comes across as the diamond in the rough on this album,
presumably passed over in the singles stakes at the time, though it
could have done quite well.

On the technical front, this album dates from 1975, though some tracks
go back to 1971. Thus we are most likely dealing at least with 16-track
masters and possibly some early 24s. This appears to be another Van
Velsen/Margouleff/Miller surround remix, but as always, you can’t tell
this from the (non-existent) liner notes. The original tapes have
cleaned up nicely, although there is some overcompression on drums that
may or may not be deliberate. Some tracks that are very near the edge
as far as distortion goes – surround shows up virtually everything. But
any faults here are from the original masters, not from the entirely
competent surround presentation. As usual with this team, each track
has a different surround layout in some respect, keeping the
presentation interesting and involving to the ear. The overall surround
treatment is sensitive and appropriate for the material.

No doubt there are listeners out there who will rate this album as
their favorite Stills solo release, but so often with an album like
this, preference has more to do with what we were going through
ourselves at the time than the material itself. One also has to ask if
they heard any of Stills’ other albums. If this album has a special
place on your shelf, then by all means check out this DTS version;
otherwise I think I would pass it by.